The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of sweetpotato, botanically known as Ipomoea batatas, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Charleston-163’. Ipomoea batatas is a member of Convolvulaceae. Sweetpotato is the seventh largest crop worldwide and is a major food staple in many countries, mostly in the tropics and semi-tropics. The most popular type of sweetpotato in the United States is the sweet vegetable type with dark copper-rose skin and dark orange, moist flesh. These type of vegetable sweetpotatoes are sweet, syrupy, and strong in flavor. In contrast, the popular sweetpotato varieties in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean have dry white or yellow flesh, and are bland and starchy. In addition to these types, there are a few rare genotypes with purple flesh. These purple-fleshed types are high in purple pigments called anthocyanins.
Anthocyanins are thought to convey many advantageous health effects, such as strong radical scavenging activity, anti-mutagenic activity, anti-inflammatory activity, antimicrobial activity, ultraviolet light protection, reduction in memory impairment, reduction in high blood pressure, and a reduction in injury to the liver.
There is a great potential to use purple-fleshed sweetpotatoes, such as the ‘Charleston-163’ cultivar, for a number of processed products. Japanese-bred purple-fleshed sweetpotato cultivars such as ‘Yamaga wamurasaki’ (commercial cultivar, not patented) are utilized in a number of processed commercial products including natural food colorants, purple paste and flour to use in juices, bread, noodles, jams, confectionary, and fermented beverages. Additionally, purple-fleshed sweetpotatoes may be converted into frozen and aseptic purees for various food applications.
However, many known purple-fleshed varieties have shortcomings. Heirloom purple-fleshed varieties such as ‘Okinawa Purple’ (commercial cultivar, not patented), which have a tan skin and purple flesh, and Camote morado from Guatemala, do not produce sufficient yields, shape well, or perform well when field grown in the southeastern United States and California. Further, varieties such as ‘Stokes Purple’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 17,976), a purple-skinned, purple-fleshed variety from Asia, does not typically have a uniform root shape and often presents with prominent veins.
The new sweetpotato cultivar ‘Charleston-163’ is a product of conventional breeding. The female parent, an heirloom cultivar Camote morado from Guatemala (plant introduction (PI) 399163), was open-pollinated by an unknown male parent from breeding line from the Applicant's Charleston sweetpotato breeding program. The stated cross was made in the fall of 2010 through bee-mediated pollination, where the Camote morado parent grew adjacent to a plant bed including hundreds of breeding lines. The seed from the cross was collected in fall of 2010 and planted in the greenhouse that winter, and then transplanted into a seedling trial during the spring of 2011. One individual seedling with purple skin and flesh was selected in fall of 2011 and was designated ‘Charleston-163’. Since the Camote morado, like all sweetpotatoes, does not self pollinate, the crosses resulting in seed are considered an open pollination to any of the potential breeding lines in the plant beds. The seed was collected from the Camote morado female parent in the fall of 2010, germinated in spring of 2011, and transplanted into field beds in Colleton County, S.C. The individual seedlings were evaluated in the fall of 2011. One seedling with beautiful purple skin and purple flesh was selected and subjected to cooking and storage tests. From that time forward, ‘Charleston-163’ was cloned from one seedling and continued to be designated ‘Charleston-163’. After multi-year field trials, it was made part of the breeding program's permanent collection.
Asexual propagation of the new sweetpotato cultivar ‘Charleston-163’ by vegetative cuttings in a controlled environment and plant beds in Colleton County, S.C., since 2011 has shown that the unique features of this new sweetpotato cultivar are stable and reproduce true to type in successive generations.
Plant Breeder's Rights for this cultivar have not been applied for. The new sweetpotato cultivar ‘Charleston-163’ has not been made publicly available more than one year prior to the filing of this application.